Dear reviewer,

Look! Another portfolio for you to read! Are you not just so exited your face could explode? I know I am. Actually, after I myself have read several model portfolio pieces, I know how bored you have to be with the same old stories over and over--the hospital stories, the death-in-the-family stories, the hunting stories, etc. Well, I have never been rushed to the hospital, I have never had a death in the family, and I have never been hunting in my life, so hopefully this won’t be the same dribble your bloodshot eyes have been staring at all day.

The main point of my whole portfolio was to be as different from everyone else’s as I could make it, and while it is not the most unique thing you will ever read, I think I did a pretty good job. If it was not for the obligation of a senior portfolio, I don’t think I would have considered myself to be at least a decent writer. Anything I have written before this year has been…well, bad. I think that’s mostly because my passing didn’t depend on those papers and I never really tried.

If I can get past procrastination and get started, things usually flow pretty easily. Also, I know I have grown up a whole lot since my freshman year like most people usually do (hopefully), and it has contributed a lot to my writing. Being older and have learned a lot more about life in the past few years, I am able to add more depth to my writing. Lately I have been wondering about how much more I will have grown up by my senior year in college. Will I be going back over these papers when I’m about twenty-two thinking, “Wow, these are pretty horrible!”? If it means that my work then will be a hundred times better, I sure hope so.

I think the most enjoyable piece in my portfolio will be my memoir. Since my mom is the biggest character I know, I could have written a novel. It is also the piece I hope my mom never finds out about. When you read it you’ll find out why. Please don’t tell her.

My personal narrative would have been much more in detail, and probably a lot meaner if I could have gotten away with it without being sent to the counselor’s office. The topic was an easy one to pick because it was a fairly recent happening. Unfortunately there are a lot of things I had to leave out that are probably inappropriate for a high school paper. Nonetheless, I had no problems containing the voice of the writing that I have in the rest of my portfolio. Having voice in my papers is something I have learned I do well that I never took notice of before. The tone of all of my pieces will give you a pretty good idea of me as a person. Hopefully you’ll like me.

My poem was the easiest for me to write because it is the piece that most of your creativity is put into. The length of a poem allows you to be short and to the point. You can get your message across without telling the whole story, and that’s what I like about them.

The only thing I wish I could change about my portfolio is that I waited so long to get started. But that’s not important now. What’s important is it’s is finished and you are going to read it now and like it. So go read it…and like it.